Students enrolled in the Foundation Engineering programme had a chance to showcase their skills at a gala evening, held recently on Cape Town Campus.

The event featured Foundation Engineering’s second annual CPUT Goes Green competition, judged by a panel that included Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Derek Hanekom. The minimum requirements for Foundation Engineering are the same as mainstream Engineering. However, the extra time built into the programme allows for longer periods of interaction with lecturers and more opportunity for site visits and other enrichment activities. On completion of the Diploma, Foundation students may register for an Engineering BTech.

The CPUT Goes Green initiative aims to demonstrate how Foundation students have been empowered with the skills required in industry. Students are asked to create or improve an environmentally friendly engineering product and present their business plan before industrial, governmental and academic representatives. The project draws strongly on the students’ communication skills and is designed to simulate the experience of presenting a proposal in the working world.

Mo Armien, Director of Bergstan Civil Engineering, and Kim Clarke, Senior lecturer from Stellenbosch University ’s Chemical Engineering joined Deputy Minister Hanekom in adjudicating the competition.

The first prize went to the Civil Engineering and Surveying group consisting of students Haajer Solomon, Rico du Plessis, Noor Basadien, Johan Christiaan Erasmus, Sollie Mathokazi and Ameer Manuel. The winning group presented a plan for putting all the elements for environmentally friendly housebuilding into a single company.

Electrical and Chemical Engineering students won second prize for portable, recyclable plastic cubes that could be used in place of cement bags.Third prize went to a Mechanical Engineering group, who proposed a plan for improving the ballasts of ships.

In addition to the prize-giving for CPUT Goes Green, awards were also handed out to the top students in various subjects. These were presented by Vidius Archer of Foundation Engineering.

The management of the gala evening itself, including all décor, refreshments and entertainment, was done by Foundation students, thereby giving them the opportunity to practise some of the project management skills they had learned during their course. The event was presented in the style of a formal red carpet affair. Students Juan Otto and Noleen Gxamza, the evening’s MC’s, ushered guests, past torch bearers, to the cocktail party that preceded the competition. A military bagpiper piped everyone into the lecture theatre. The full complement of the SA army band and singers Justin Fransman and Erick Mulumba, who are Foundation students themselves, provided musical entertainment during the evening.

“Students involved in this event made their way home with warm hearts,” said Foundation Engineering lecturer Marie-Anne Ogle,”knowing that together, memories which will last a lifetime, had been created.""

By the Foundation Engineering Department

Photographs: The winning team were (left to right) Haajer Solomon, Sollie Mathokazi, Rico du Plessis, Johan Christian Erasmus, Ameer Manuel and Noor Basadien.

Written by CPUT News
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“The challenge faced by institutions of higher learning is to translate knowledge into addressing basic human needs.”

This was one of the messages of Mr Derek Hanekom, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology, during his visit to the Cape Peninsula University of Technology's Bellville Campus on Tuesday, 18 March 2008.

Deputy Minister Hanekom said there was a need to look at how we get the knowledge generated by research and innovation to the people who need the results of that innovation. ""A vision should be beyond oneself,"" he said, referring to the importance of enabling research and innovation programs to filter through to, and be of use to the wider community.

Deputy Minister Hanekom's interest during the visit was on technology transfer and technology research and development facilities; both those initiated through programmes supported by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) as well as those initiated by CPUT and other enabling organisations.

Deputy Minister Hanekom visited various science and technology facilities on campus accompanied by Dr Nawaz Mahomed, Manager: Manufacturing, Technology Transfer and Local Innovation at the DST; CPUT Vice-Chancellor Prof Vuyisa L. Mazwi-Tanga, two Deputy Vice-Chancellors, and senior research and administrative managers at CPUT. The visited facilities included the Oxidative Stress Research Centre, the Textile Technology Station, and the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Laboratory.

Dr Chris Nhlapo, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Technology Innovation and Partnerships, presented an overview of where the institution stood in terms of technological research and innovation and where it was headed.

Dr Nhlapo said that there was an emphasis on producing more postgraduate students at CPUT. He mentioned that there was particularly a need for more female students in Engineering. He noted that there were many black students in Applied Sciences and Business, which is positive. ""We are aware that there are pockets of excellence, but we need to consolidate them so that they become centres of excellence,"" said Dr Nhlapo.

Dr Nhlapo stated that by providing funding to areas of demonstrated international strength, CPUT has brought researchers together from disparate disciplines and institutions to collaborate on creating knowledge and solving problems that truly matter to South Africans.

By Thami Nkwanyane, Marketing and Communication Department

Photograph: Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Derek Hanekom visits the Oxidative Stress Research Centre.

Written by CPUT News
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